Reports of Israeli PR Victory Greatly Exaggerated

In November 2009, I found myself “exposed” by Channel 4’s Dispatches program as part of a shadowy conglomerate of Israel advocacy organizations that pressure mainstream media outlets in the UK, such as the BBC, into submission.

Granted, with over 160,000 HonestReporting subscribers worldwide, a flood of emails to the BBC or The Guardian is to be expected. Nevertheless, once the initial shock of being outed as a senior Elder of Zion had subsided, I was able to laugh at journalist Peter Oborne’s ridiculous conclusions that Israel and its supporters wielded an immense amount of power over the media.

Greg Philo’s article that claims to quantifiably prove that Israeli spin doctors have managed to get a hold of the message in the media is yet another piece of anti-Israel agitprop that has no basis in reality.

While I cannot claim to be a disinterested observer when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict (and I don’t), Philo has no right to pass his “findings” off as those of a neutral academic. Only this month, Philo appeared on a panel discussion organized by Middle East Monitor (MEMO) entitled “Complicity in Oppression: Does the Media Aid Israel?”

MEMO is the pro-Hamas propagandas operation of Daud Abdullah. He is the former deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, a signatory of the infamous Istanbul Declaration (pdf), and a fanatical Israel hater. Abdullah’s deputy at MEMO is Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of Interpal, another British charity that serves Hamas. On MEMO’s pages you will find work such as this foul accusation of dual loyalty against the British ambassador to Israel, support for blood libel tales, and piece after piece by Abdel Bari Atwan, the journalist who has said he would “dance in Trafalgar Square” if Israel were annihilated by Iran in a nuclear strike.

Indeed, Abdel Bari Atwan also appeared on the panel alongside veteran Israel-hater and former BBC journalist Tim Llewellyn.

Having established the company Philo keeps, he makes it clear in his article that his conclusions are based on a default worldview that sees Israel and its narrative as being firmly in the wrong.

Statements such as “The underlying reasons for the conflict were absent, such as being driven from their homes and land when Israel was created” or the assumption that the Israeli images of soldiers being attacked by passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara were not what they seemed demonstrate Philo’s less than objective starting point for his study.

Yet again Philo works from slanted assumptions, ignoring the 329 rockets and mortar shells fired at Israel during the six month ceasefire as well as Hamas unilaterally renouncing the ceasefire by firing hundreds more rockets into Israel in the days preceding Israeli military actions.

Indeed, Philo is actually part of the problem. The reaction to recent events, including in the media, have led many Israelis to believe that they are on the receiving end of a campaign of delegitimization. Part of this involves such an extreme level of criticism of military operations as to revoke Israel’s very right to physical self-defense.

Likewise, Philo’s agenda can also be seen as an attack on Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself through public diplomacy, a right exercised by every Western democracy with a free press. Why does Philo find the creation of an Israeli National Information Directorate to be so sinister? Such a body was only created in response to the multitude of uncoordinated and sometimes conflicting messages that so often failed to effectively counter the carefully controlled messaging emanating from the Arab and Palestinian side.

If Philo were to spend some time in Israel, perhaps he would be surprised at the amount of hand wringing and anxiety over the country’s perceived failure to effectively present its case. And why, if Israel is, according to him, so effective in its PR, have polls consistently ranked Israel as one of the most negatively viewed countries in the world alongside such paragons of virtue as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan?

Why is Israel the only country that is not allowed to defend itself in the court of public opinion and the media? After all, US and British armed forces in Afghanistan also run a highly organized media operation. Yet, while contrary to Philo’s assertions, Israeli explanations for military operations are treated with scorn by many media outlets, an erroneous airstrike by US fighters against unarmed Afghan civilians is not treated in the same way.

Greg Philo

Philo complains that a UN report into the Gaza flotilla was barely covered by the media. However, the coverage of the Turkel Report into the Mavi Marmara incident illustrates how some media is unprepared to accept that Israel could ever be in the right. As the report exonerated the IDF, some media outlets such as the BBC and Independent attempted to portray the Israeli commission of inquiry as flawed simply by virtue of the fact that it was Israeli appointed. This, despite the presence of respected international observers as part of the commission.

Philo refers to some BBC headlines that he believes are the result of effective Israeli messaging. Well, for every two BBC headlines that get it right, HonestReporting has identified countless times where the headlines have demonstrated a total disregard for the facts and could no way be seen to accurately reflect Israeli messages. It is quite offensive to suggest, as Philo appears to, that Israel has somehow managed to exercise any level of control over the media.

Let me make it quite clear – I am certainly not accusing Philo of anti-Semitism but his insinuations are reminiscent of the anti-Semitic canard of Jewish control over the media. They are also an insult to the media itself. I don’t need to read a pseudo-scientific study to find out what the media’s prevailing attitude towards Israel is. Presumably, The Guardian, according to Philo’s criteria, would be the sole outpost of media truth when it comes to the reporting of Israel. I would certainly take issue with that assumption and Greg Philo’s faulty and insidious analysis.

Philo I believe is typical of so many arrogant self professed experts on world events in the media arena. They all scramble to air the opinions and comment and spout off on, actually simply everything,

Is it egotistical bigotry, arrogance or is it plain ignorance or all the above, which ever way you look at it, intelligent people will be able to see right through them.

From my view point the majority of reporters, commentators and the like, do not posses the necessary skills these days to present anywork from an unbiased objective view point.

Wow, that’s the classic Blood Libel, sure enough, updated for Haiti. My apologies for not reading more carefully, and thanks to all for your help.

“Source: Al-Sharq Qatari newspaper”…this should have tipped me off.

Internet, for the win. Before, only a few scholars and ex-pats living Qatar would have been able to document this filth. The Internet has made it easier to document how widespread this filth is in certain quarters.

@John – I’m also a compulsive fact-checker but I try to read the articles and not just skim through them. The “blood libel” link here brought me to the following paragraph by Dr. Shaban:

After the news was made public about the Israeli army killing young Palestinians in order to steal their vital organs, other stories appeared about Israelis stealing Ukrainian kids in order to harvest their organs; and now there are reports from Haiti pointing to the theft of body organs, again by Israelis. This is, apparently, all documented but nothing has been done to investigate these allegations. Israel’s sponsor, the United States, has also used the chaos in Haiti to tighten its control of the island and everything that goes on there, intending clearly not to lose its grip again. It is evident, therefore, that Haiti’s disaster is providing the cover for other agendas, both political and military.

Anti-Semites know they are. anti-Semites. We don’t need to tell them. Nor would they be genuinely hurt. They would have to feign umbrage for social reasons. In fact their hatred of Jews and their contempt for Jewish sovereignty are , for them, badges of honor.

I have written and asked many people and organisations within the media and political arena to force the BBC to publish the Balen report.
This independent report was commissioned by the BBC because it had been accused of reporting on the M.E situation with a prejudiced view against Israel.
After 5 years and many requests it refuses to make “Balen” public. WHY?

Then weigh up the connection with the Guardian-”If you are looking for a job with the BBC Its the Guardians employment pages you will find the vacancies”

Hezbullah planned attack on Israeli borders with Lebanon and Syria on May 15
Lenny Ben David presents evidence that Hezbullah was behind the invasions of Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon on May 15.

Below are excerpts from an article written by one of the Maroun al Ras participants, Nour Samaha, a 28-year-old Swiss-Lebanese freelance writer based in Beirut. Presumably, Israeli security officials are studying similar photographs and the accounts of the May 15 attack on Israel’s borders in preparation for the next onslaught.

…

Sunday 15th May, 2011

7.30am, Nada calls. “The buses are already full and they told us if we want to hitch a ride we’d have to stand the whole way down, is there space with you?” The buses are full? Big smile on my face. “Of course!” After a stop for coffee, we began our journey down, with Ahmad leading our two-car convoy. It was very unlikely we would get lost though, because every kilometre or so we’d pass half a dozen buses decked out with Palestinian flags, clearly heading in the same direction as us. And if somehow we missed those, someone had kindly taken the time to signpost the entire journey down with directions to Palestine. I guess for future reference, you know, after we’ve liberated it and we can make plans to hang out in Haifa for the weekend. Forward planning; I like.

…

Trying to be clever, Ahmad searched for an alternate route to beat the crowds to Maroun el Ras. Clearly the organisers, in conjunction with Hizbullah, had predicted there would be people with Ahmad’s mentality, and blocked all other roads leading to the hill top, ensuring complete control of the masses of people descending on the border from all corners of the country. And it was very well executed. Herding us like sheep into a pen, we got in line behind each other, slowly moving forward.

…

From the start we had taken the decision to go to the border fence, so once we found the others, we headed down towards the fence. Looking into the distance at the border, one could see a hail of stones being thrown over the fence, almost automatic, as if in time with some invisible beat. Some had even managed to throw a couple of flags onto the fence. As the shots continued to ring out, news quickly travelled up the hill, with people passing on unconfirmed statistics of the dead and wounded. “1 dead.” “4 dead.” “10 wounded.” The shots continued.

At the bottom of the hill was a dirt road. By this time it was probably around 1pm, and the [Lebanese] army had started to gather, forming a blockade to prevent protestors from crossing into the field which led to the fence. We had seen scores of people retreating from the fence following several shots from the Israelis, before returning, hurling stones with renewed anger. Attempting to pass the blockade, we were at first politely asked to back away, before being roughly pushed back by the army, who were shouting at us to back up. “But we want to be at the fence,” we pleaded with them. “What? You want to go over there are get shot? Are you not seeing the bodies they’re bringing back?” One soldier responded aggressively.

But we were. We were seeing the bodies alright. We were seeing them, boys as young as 15, critically wounded. We were seeing them, wrapped in make-shift blankets and stretchers made of keffiyehs and Palestinian flags tied together. We were seeing them, covered in blood from gunshot wounds to the head, chest, or abdomen. And that’s why we wanted to be at the fence. The more bodies were pulled away from the fence, whether dead or wounded, the more we, as a crowd, wanted to be there. To help, to support, to get angry, to chant, to do whatever was necessary to defend.

[Lebanese] army got tetchy with the crowd’s pushing and shoving, and fired warning shots in the air. Followed by another round. People ducked to the ground to avoid the spray of bullets, unsure of what just took place. This wasn’t supposed to happen; isn’t the army supposed to fire at the enemy? Wasn’t the enemy on the other side of the fence currently killing our protestors? The crowd reacted quickly, picking up whatever was around them and throwing them at the army; sticks, stones, bottles. A rain of objects fell on the soldiers, who retaliated with another round of shots. People started screaming at them; “Why??” “You should be firing at the Israelis not at us!” “Use your fire on the Israelis!” “You fire on your own people?!”

At one point the shots rang out. Everyone scrambled to the ground, face down, while shouting “watch out for the mines!”, “Heads down! Keep your heads down!”. But within seconds, everyone was on their feet again, running towards the fence, with their arms cocked and ready to throw. It would take about a minute before you heard “ambulance!”, “injured!”, or “killed!” as a result of the latest barrage of bullets, causing the protesters to get riled up even further. This did not happen just once, or twice. This was happening all the time. It got to a point where some people stopped ducking the bullets.

Mr. Philo exemplifies the “standard anti-semite” !! Twisted reasoning, hatred and pure unadulterated prejudice. Ranting against Israel will always find those of Islam—–”eating it up” !!! He preaches to the choir—–but does not realize that his days and those of Islam are NUMBERED—-as the world rejects, hatred and “man’s inhumanity to man !!!”

@ john: The rhetoric of this group seems verbatim to often come from Ahmadineajad/ Hamas and company…and maybe Helen thomas too, since their latest shtick is that jews have no historical place in the middle east and instead are the descendants of the khazars…an extinct medieval turkic tribe of the volga river region.

You can read more about this crackpot bunch online in the Jan, Feb and Mar 2010 issues of the WASHTENAW JEWISH NEWS in a series of articles by me and others on all aspects of them, from personal psychopathies to ideological and historical absurdities.

The overarching title of the series is “false witnesses” and one is by a defector from the group who joined the synagogue her mother continues to harass.

They really cry out for a sasha baron cohen or john stewart treatment.

@dr. steve pastner: Thanks for writing. It doesn’t surprise me that groups like that exist in A^2 (Ann Arbor). I’m delighted to hear this group is marginal, as I know that there are other groups, other times, and other locations (like Wayne St. University) in which these sentiments are more mainstream.

Do you know if that group’s Blood Libel rhetoric is connected with MEMO or Dr. Bothaina Shaaban in any specific way (other than generalities, such as both groups being against the blockade, or making biased reports to journalists, etc.)

@ John In Michigan: here in ann arbor Michigan is a tiny group ( cult actually) calling itself “jewish witnesses for peace” although in its handful of members are several Quakers and an arab Christian).

For nearly 8 years they have picketed a local synagogue on behalf ot “the palestinians” with inflammatory signage that is indeed the embodiment of “blood libels”.

Fortunately they are totally marginal within the local community, as attested to by their endlessly defeated “boycott , divest, sanction” motions at at assorted community and university venues.

Unfortunately they have not received the level of overt contempt…including from Jewish leaders—that they deserve ,although several folks, myself included, try to provide that in assorted ways.

Greg Philo’s article is truly nauseating. Indeed, “the pot calling the kettle black”. Palestinian PR machine is really working overtime and it makes me wonder if the author of this article is just wilfully ignorant or if he is on someone’s payroll. Judging by his activities in the past, I would say the latter. He follows Goebbels’ doctrine which is more or less saying that if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it. Judging by some of the comments found under Philo’s article, he (Goebbels) was right. I don’t know what media is the author referring to? BBC is known for its anti-Israel bias and yes, it is true, they were caught with their “pants down” more than once. I always marvel listening to their reports which usually start with headlines saying something to the effect that “IDF killed Palestinians”. If one is lucky and BBC has a “moment of truth”, one hears (reads) somewhere buried in the story that it was either a response to yet another terrorist attack (teenagers’ hangout, bus stop, etc.) or better yet, these Palestinians were killed during the attack. Of-course, the majority of people read headlines and really never get to that point.
We somehow got used to these spins performed by major media outlets, but this author takes it even further. He is not satisfied with the fact that Palestinians are actually winning this PR war (one has to give it to them, they learned their lessons from their KGB instructors really well), he is now turning it around and “accuses” media of demonstrating a pro-Israel bias. Moreover, he bases his statements on his “study”. How, ironic, Mr. Goebbels also based his lies on “scientific studies”.

A fortnight ago, on a shuttle from Luton airport to central London, the guy next to me was reading a paper where a center heading stated that Israel killed 13 Palestinians during a “protest” at the border fences on the borders beween Israel and Lebanon and the Golan Heights. That’s right, a “protest” not a violent mob throwing blocks and rocks and physically tearing down an international border fence. Some of the dead were in fact shot by the Lebanese army that tried to prevent the mob from reaching the fence. Thirteen IDF soldiers were treated in hospital for injuries by flying rocks/bricks/blocks. I couldn’t see which paper it was but when the passenger got off and folded the paper I noticed it was the Guardian, – no great surprise really, – distortion of the truth, calling a violent moronic demonstration a “protest” (dated May 16th. 2011). The fact is that the majority of British media downplayed the violence the mobs showed and they were usually depicted as “those poor souls trying to return home”. Perfidious Albion at its best – or worst.

I should add that I generally agree that many journalists are guilty of bias, incomplete or distorted reporting when it comes to Israel, and specifically, the Flotilla incident, etc. I just think that evocative terms such as “Blood Libel” need to be used sparingly, lest they become ordinary and banal.

I am familiar with the main blood libel myth (involving supposed human infant sacrifices for the Passover rites; as I say, it is a myth), and I am sadly aware that the myth continues to be perpetuated in a disturbingly large segment of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim societies.

However, I don’t see support in this post, in the post at Harry’s Place, nor in any of the links provided, showing that Dr Bothaina Shaaban of MEMO invoked these disgusting myths in her article “Haiti-Gaza” which Harry links to. How exactly does that MEMO article reflect or perpetuate the Blood Libel myth?

Perhaps the author, or Harry, is trying to suggest that the Palestinian propaganda contrasting Haiti and Gaza is itself a form of blood libel. Perhaps certain statements in connection with the Flotilla incident are a form of blood libel. If so, this needs to be explained clearly and explicitly. You can’t assume your readers are able to make this connection. And, based on the evidence presented so far, I don’t see why the connection is even attempted.

There are, unfortunately, plenty of clear-cut examples of anti-Israel voices exploiting the Blood Libel myth. There is no need to over-use the phrase; or if it must be used in this case, it must be explained and documented clearly why it is used.

Jews need to get used to lies, deceit, fact distortion, agitprop, outright propaganda, unfounded prevarications, suppression of truths, evidence, proofs, and the printing/tv showing most outrageous crap about Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish State of Israel.

Naturally, it is smart to act and counteract as much as possible. It is even more important to send in fact-based insults to specific writers and talking heads as this tends to bash their fragile self-esteem. When caught out, it really does send some kind of impact message. Remember though, they are incurable and will just go on with it; it also makes lots of Haters lots of money as well.

Finally, more to the point, on the subject of JewHate(which is what this is all about), it is critically important to know ourselves and to point it out to the Haters that JewHatred is now confirmed as a Contageous Behavioral Disturbance, both of the individual and of the group. It affects Christians, Moslems, and Self-Loathing Jews worldwide. It transends national boundaries and the centuries; and this disease has no cure. This is no theory; it can very easily be researched on the Internet by placing key words: behavioral disturbance, mental/emotional aberration, hatred, predjudice, irrationality, Jews, research findings.

What you find will simply amaze: sociological, psychiatric, psychological, medical, anthropological, and other scholarly projects from among the top researchers(Christian/Jewish) on the subject of JewHate(from about 1950 to 2005) come to the conclusion that JewHate is a mental illness. The reader will find big research breakthroughs on this in the 1970s and 1980s.

This is a powerful conclusion and weapon in the War Against The Jewish People; it needs to be used all the time. What we Jews are dealing with are not rational people who have sifted and winnowed logically and reasonably through all the evidence, documentation, findings, research and found that Jews are Christ Killers, eaters of the dead, blood suckers, stealers of the lands, poisoners of wells, enemies of G-d, hated by G-d, money grubbers, worshippers of the devil, hate mongers, war lovers, world takeover powermad nutbags, and all the rest of the nausea which gets into print and onto tv.

Nosirree-bob! What we Jews are dealing with are mental patients. We now know this and need to protect and defend ourselves from the afflicted ones by any and all means at our disposal. Our very lives and the lives of our loved ones depend upon this. Keep also firmly in mind that JewHate has not anything to do with what we do, don’t do, say, or don’t say. It has a life of it’s own and is prevalent in where and when there are no living Jews. Look up your history(England, for example, during the time up to Cromwell) and in the JewFree arab entities. Sickness run amok.

According to the Biblical Scripture: “And the workers of iniquity shall arise in every generation…..” What we know now is the identified driving force: sickness. JewHate also has an element of Tourette’s Syndrome, if you will notice. That would be the incessant vomitting out of the worst epithets, curses, swearings, compulsive lies, vitriol, and hatred against THE JEW, on a spontaneous, unending stream everywhere.

To conclude: if it wasn’t so damned dangerous to us, it would be comedic. No organization of us can disprove this unending barfing; and for those of us who do try, nobody amongst the afflicted ones cares for the truth about us anyway. Still, keep up the good detective work and the excellent PR.

It makes so much sense since pro-Palestinian Western journalists are mere victims of the International Jew. One wonders if these people will ever get over themselves. And then one gets reminded that after 63 years of sovereignty, and they’re still debating it history with fallacies and whining.

As a retired academic with an Islamic world/cultures focus I can attest to the fact that most such have an anti-Israel bias, both out of a tendency of all social scientists to “hyper identify” with those they study and the more practical concern that getting research visas to islamic countries isnt helped by public support for Israel.

I have heard Mr Philo in Jönköping, Sweden at a conference in 2009 on the Media and Mid East reporting and he was one of the most biased persons I have ever heard in the field, including on that Conference, which is to say a great deal.
Mr Philo doesn’t even try to be even-handed.Probably thinks it’s a “bourgeois” attitude. To look at the books he has written on the subject confirms this with a vengeance.

I have heard Mr Philo in Jönköping, Sweden at a conference in 2009 on the Media and Mid East reporting and he was one of the most biased persons I have even heard in the field, including on that Conference, which is to say a great deal.
Mr Philo doesn’t even try to be even-handed.Probably thinks it’s a “bourgeois” attitude. To look at the books he has written on the subject confirms this with a vengeance.